Results are in! Check out the Rogers Park Community Survey!
SPECIAL FEATURE! Written and designed by Rachel Hoffman
You can get into college, but staying in college is a different game
Promise Scholarship helps HACC’s low-income and immigrant youth with higher education The Promise Scholarship, funded by and in partnership with the incredible Caerus Foundation, provides financial support for higher education for low-income youth in HECC programs. The scholarship essentially covers tuition –$40,000 for a four-year college and $20,000 for a two-year college. But in addition to the funding, Promise Scholars have the crucial support of a HECC mentor to support them. And that’s Ayesha Mirzakhail. Ayesha, HACC’s Scholarship Manager and Job Developer, manages 16 active Scholars. “I asked Scholars ‘Are you getting support?’ and they said not from family
Parent perspective: Reyna says “I am grateful not only as a mother but as a former student”!
My name is Reyna Terrell and I am a parent of a child transitioning to kindergarten from HECC's Sheila Reynolds Berner Family Center. After five and a half years of being in the program, my daughter and I are leaving the Family Center with so much gratitude and appreciation towards every person we have come across. My daughter started at the Family Center when she was just 6 months old. I was a single mother who desperately wanted to go back to school. Just a few months after putting her into the program, I went back to school and started working as
Parent Perspective: Sisters who had children as teens found a home at the Family Center
Genesis, 20, and Michele, 22, are sisters who grew up in Howard and Evanston Community Center programs. Their lives were filled with with homework help, field trips, summer camp, and more from birth through teenage years. Even their mother worked in the kitchen at the Family Center and volunteered throughout HACC. However, their lives changed dramatically after both Genesis and Michele gave birth to their own children before finishing high school at 16 and 17 years old, respectively. But HECC was there as a safety net. They enrolled their infant children, Sherlyn (now three years old) and Laylah (now four years old), in the
Parent perspective: Affordable pre-k means everything to a single mother
Jeannifer is a parent of a child, Sophia, at HECC's Birth to Five Early Childhood Education Program at the Sheila Reynolds Berner Family Center in Rogers Park. The Family Center provides a high-quality, affordable early childhood education for 116 children ages 0-5 years old in a full-day program. Hear from Jeannifer herself about how important this Head Start program has been for her family! I’m a Guatemalan immigrant, and moved to Chicago in 1993. I have been living in Chicago for 24 years. I came when I was 16 years old and cared for my three younger brothers while my parents worked
Armstrong El adult ed partnership helps moms be students
This year, HECC partnered with George Armstrong Elementary School in West Rogers Park to host a GED class. More space means another free class, and the students, who are majority mothers, have the childcare for elementary aged children while they study. “Partnering with neighborhood schools is a natural way to extend our mission of building self-efficacy through education into the community,” said Moon Parker, Adult Education Coordinator, and "As educators, we know that the greatest factor of children's success are their parents." Fatima (above) is a mother and student in the class. She came to the U.S. from Morocco in
Howard Area youth rocked Midwest video game competition!
Teenagers are wasting all of their time playing video games! This is the tired refrain of adults around the world. Well, according to a Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health study, this couldn't be farther from the truth. In 2016, researchers collected and analyzed data from thousands of children between six and 11 years old who played video games. They studied the association between time spent playing games and the children's mental health and cognitive and social skills. Playing video games could even make you smarter. Researchers found that playing video games can have very positive effects on children.
Youth empowerment is a global issue, HECC went to Jamaica to learn more
Nathaniel Viets-Vanlear is HACC’s Career Readiness Program Coordinator. He helps young people find work and connect youth to the services they need to thrive. Recently, he went to Jamaica to further his learning as a youth worker and came away with a global view of what youth in low-income communities face every day. Greetings HECC family, Now that I’m settled back at the Youth Center, I wanted to share with the HECC family an amazing opportunity I had to travel abroad to engage with young people, and the agencies that serve them, in the Gregory Park, a low-income town
Youth present their art, tech, and more to the Rogers Park community
This May, the HECC Youth Center held the Spring 2017 BIGshowcase in the Clubhouse– an open house for youth in programs to present their innovative art, technology, and leadership skills. Their technology prowess is astounding. At the showcase, youth explained how to use traditional stop motion combined with modern special VFX (visual effects) software to create an excellent short movie. They also organized and hosted a Street Fighter V tournament in the Stream Station (in the basement of the Clubhouse), recorded the games, and broadcasted them for fans. Check out the 3-D printer that youth use to create objects for filmmaking: https://youtu.be/7vCWQ6r4AdU Mawusi
HECC children rock! Check out pics of Week of the Young Child
Howard and Evanston Community Center recently celebrated Week of the Young Child, a National Association of Educating Young Children week-long event that: "...recognize[s] that children's opportunities are our responsibilities, and to recommit ourselves to ensuring that each and every child experiences the type of early environment at home, at child care, at school and in the community that will promote their early learning." Basically, children rock and HECC is committed to providing high quality early education services for children in low-income families of every race, religion, and gender! *Only 406 ECE programs in Illinois are NAEYC accredited and the Sheila Reynolds